[Femina geekoides]

Who is the Big Bad Wolf?

I can't believe that it's nearly the end of this series of Doctor Who. Bouncing around on the sofa to the theme tune (and then hiding behind it when things get scary) has become a bit of a ritual on Saturday nights that I'm really going to miss.

The past few episodes have been fantastic. 'The Empty Child' and 'The Doctor Dances' were wonderful mixtures of funny lines, outrageous three-way flirting between Rose, The Doctor and Captain Jack, and genuinely traumatising scariness. Gas masks are sinister and troubling things on their own, but coupled with a disembodied child's voice saying "Are you my Mummy?"... Doctor Who gave me nightmares as a child, and now it's doing the same all over again.

I love the way that the characters have developed over the series. This week's episode, 'Boomtown' was also quite an interesting and serious discussion of capital punishment, and what should be done with people who do terrible, unforgivable things. It was also the first time that the frequent and almost subliminal references to Bad Wolf have been explicitly discussed. They built this up with very menacing incidental music, before the Doctor abruptly grinned and dismissed it as 'just a coincidence'. But it isn't just a coincidence, is it? I don't remember the last time I watched something on TV that set up such intrigue so cleverly.

Next week's episode is called 'Bad Wolf', and there were Daleks (lots of them!) in the trailer. I can't wait, but I don't want it to end.